NBA: Start the water cooler and reach the Hall of Fame

The simultaneous growth of Thompson and Leonard has brought about earth-shaking changes to the Wizards.

After winning two games in October without any pressure, the Wizards won all 10 games in the following November.

In other words, before December, the Wizards had a terrifying record of 12 wins and 14 losses, ranking first in the league without any pressure.

Li Kaiming's average playing time per game has also reached a career low.

本赛季截止目前，场均上场30.1分钟，得到28.7分14篮板9助攻2盖帽2抢断的数据。

While points per game dropped for the third consecutive year, field goal percentage and true shooting percentage improved again.

It can be seen from these data that Li Kaiming is playing too easily at present. Basically, in 80% of the games, he is paddling throughout the game, throwing two three-pointers in each quarter, and then making a layup or shooting. Middle distance.

Even so, the scoring average is still first in the league.

There are some more difficult games left. During regular time, he still plays through the water, and waits until the last moment to suddenly take action and make the final decision.

However, the Wizards won 69 games last season, and their 14-game winning streak at the beginning of this season did not cause much of a stir.

However, with this kind of record, Li Kaiming still firmly won the Eastern Conference Player of the Month in November.

The best player in the Western Conference in the first month of the season was Kevin Durant, who averaged 26.9+8.4+5.6 per game. He looked very impressive, but compared with Li Kaiming next to him, he was a little underwhelming.

The next two months of competition are the longest and most boring part of the entire season.

Apart from some special powerful dialogues, there are basically no gimmicks.

This situation only changed after the All-Star voting began at the end of December.

However, for Li Kaiming himself, there is never anything to worry about such things as All-Star voting. Although the weight of the votes in China is small, the number of Chinese fans is large, not to mention that he is also the top traffic player in America. .

Therefore, there is basically no suspense about this All-Star vote king, especially since this All-Star Weekend is still held in New Orleans.

The original New Orleans Hornets changed their name after the start of this season and became the New Orleans Pelicans. Currently, the biggest player on the team is last year's No. 1 pick Anthony Davis. It's hard to even make it to the All-Star Game. Li Kaiming's vote king poses no threat.

The December schedule passed without incident, and the Wizards' winning streak ended during a three-game trip to the Western Conference.

Without the pressure of a winning streak, the Wizards players were more relaxed. After a little relief, they started another winning streak.

Li Kaiming won the Eastern Conference Player of the Month for two consecutive months, and his average data per game has not changed much compared to the first month.

倒是西部的凯文杜兰特，在12月得分爆发了一波，整个12月份场均能得到29.4分9篮板4.1助攻的数据。

Two months into the season, Li Kaiming and Durant won the Player of the Month in their respective divisions, which also led some media to start discussing that this season's regular season MVP will be born among these two people.

After the NBA schedule returned to normal, All-Star voting changed to the original three rounds of voting.

In a round of voting announced at the end of December, Li Kaiming firmly occupied the first place in the Eastern frontcourt and the league, surpassing James, who was second in the East, by more than 12 votes, and surpassing Durant, who was second in the league, by more than 8 votes.

Compared with Li Kaiming's number of votes, what is even more surprising is that Leonard and Thompson also appeared on the All-Star voting list, and their positions are not low.

Among them, Leonard ranks 9th in the Eastern frontcourt, and Thompson ranks 7th in the Eastern backcourt. Thompson's high ranking is not because he performs better than Leonard, nor because he is more popular, but because of the number of frontcourt players. More than in the backfield.

Li Kaiming has been elected as the All-Star vote winner for two consecutive years, but he has no feelings about this result.

On the contrary, Leonard and Thompson entered the All-Star list for the first time, and they were not the last ones. Their departure made these two guys excited.

And it just so happened that after the first round of voting was announced, the Wizards' opponent was the Thunder in the Western Conference.

This game also attracted a lot of attention, and Thunder fans also took this game very seriously.

Whether it's the grievances in the previous finals or the current competition between the cores of the two teams for MVP, this game is full of fun to watch.

Therefore, Thunder fans are almost greeting Wizards players according to playoff specifications.

When all members of the Wizards stood on the Thunder's home court, earth-shattering boos erupted in the arena!

Durant is also very serious tonight, because he knows that as long as the Thunder can defeat the Wizards in the two regular season duels, the MVP judges will be inclined to choose him in the final vote!

However, Durant miscalculated again tonight!

The situation of the game completely went in a direction that he could not have imagined!

Because the protagonist of this game is neither him nor Li Kaiming.

But Leonard and Thompson!

The two young men who entered the All-Star voting for the first time, and who have experienced two finals, directly stole the limelight from Li Kaiming and Durant with their passion and excitement!

Leonard faced Durant throughout the game, guarding the latter, a scorer known for his efficiency, until he took 30 shots in the frontcourt and scored 30 points.

At the same time, Leonard's own performance on the offensive end was also very good. Durant only thought about restricting Li Kaiming and double-teamed the latter at every turn. Leonard seized the opportunity and punished him with various shots.

最终伦纳德全场得到了21分8篮板3抢断2助攻2盖帽。

The data doesn't even reflect his terrifying performance on the defensive end. Just look at Durant's livid face.

And Klay Thompson, the other two generals in Hengha, performed equally well.

Thompson was on full fire, hitting 11 three-pointers in the game. The number of three-pointers made in a single game is second only to Li Kaiming in the history of the Wizards. He scored 36 points and 4 rebounds.

When Li Kaiming saw how excited these two guys were tonight, he was naturally happy and relaxed. He simply turned into a sexy dealer and did the work of dealing cards and defending at the top of the arc.

However, these two guys felt really good tonight. Even though he was completely swimming, he still scored an extraordinary triple-double of 16 points, 14 rebounds, 22 assists and 3 blocks. The assists were a career high!

For Li Kaiming himself, this game had no special feeling.

But it was his indifferent attitude that made Durant on the opposite side almost go crazy!

In the eyes of the latter, Li Kaiming's behavior was not indifferent, but arrogant!

In the eyes of Durant at this time, Li Kaiming's behavior was equivalent to slapping him in the face, saying in an extremely arrogant tone: "I don't even need to hit you..."

This conversation between the MVP candidates turned into a performance between Leonard and Thompson, which made all the fans who were preparing to watch a battle between dragons and tigers dumbfounded.

However, no matter how important this game is, it is only a regular season game at best. Discussions will become a thing of the past after two or three days at most.

Regardless of whether you are a winner or a loser, life must go on and the game must continue to be played.

Time soon came to January. In the new year, New Year’s Eve team building has changed from Li Kaiming’s family gathering to a tradition for the entire Wizards team.

For this year’s New Year’s Eve dinner, team president Tommy Sheppard simply waved his hand and directly reserved a hall in a top hotel in Washington. Both players and team staff attended.

This scene actually made many old players who attended Li Kaiming's family gathering feel a little embarrassed.

Three years ago, this gathering was just a joy for a small group of people.

Now three years later, the party has moved from home to a hotel, and the scale has changed from a family party to a company annual meeting.

Don't tell me, whether it's the number of participants or the part where you talk about New Year's wishes, it feels a bit like a company's annual meeting.

At the dinner, dozens of people drank and drank, and the various delicacies were dizzying.

The New Year's Eve team building has brought the entire team together, which can be seen from the performance in January.

The Wizards lost three games in December, two of which were due to consecutive away games and back-to-back games. The team was in poor condition.

In the other game, Sanders wanted to try other tactics, but ended up capsizing in the gutter.

But after entering January, the team-building Wizards once again ushered in a winning streak. Following the complete victory in November, the Wizards' record in January was also a complete victory!

Li Kaiming's average data per game has not changed much, but his right-hand man, Leonard and Thompson, have become increasingly hot after half a season of training.

On January 1, the New Orleans All-Star voting results were announced.

Li Kaiming received 165 million fan votes and became the All-Star vote leader for three consecutive years.

Leonard received a total of 19 votes after three rounds. Although he did not enter the All-Star game, he was ranked seventh in the Eastern Conference frontcourt after being selected for the first time.

Thompson received a total of 16 votes, also ranking seventh in the Eastern backcourt.

The second general Heng Ha is growing into an All-Star player at the fastest speed.

The best players of the month in the Eastern and Western Conferences are still Li Kaiming and Durant. This season, they are basically the second best players in the list of the best players of the month and the unbeatable first place.

But it may be that the game at the end of December angered Durant, who seemed to be a different person after the New Year and was in hot form.

Throughout January, Durant averaged 35.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 6 assists per game, which allowed him to surpass Li Kaiming in the scoring list and temporarily rank first in points per game.

This month's performance has brought Durant's MVP call back to its peak!

Especially after his scoring average exceeded that of Li Kaiming, many American basketball commentators have begun to clamor on social media:

"Li Kaiming has won the regular season MVP for two consecutive seasons. He really deserved it in the previous two seasons because he was the scoring leader and also led his team to the best record in the league.

But this season Kevin Durant's scoring dominance surpassed him. Although the Wizards still have the league's first record, we have to consider that this is Li Kaiming's third MVP, and the third consecutive time, unless He can lead the team to create a history-making regular season record, otherwise, to me, Kevin Durant is the one more worthy of MVP..."